What Was Your Best Game Of 2013?

The year is at an end. We've reached the pinnacle month of a year ready to retire and we're just one week away from welcoming in 2014 with open (or closed) arms. With gaming enthusiasts, bloggers, journalists, pundits, bums, YouTubers and streamers in between all giving their opinion of what they felt were the best game(s) of 2013, one of the more pertinent questions is what did you feel topped the “Best of” list for 2013?

It's been a short road to the end of the year as far as notable or big name games go. While all the usual suspects have fleshed out our holiday season with annual numbers or subtitles to remain relevant in the public eye, there were far and few games released over the course of 2013 that held the potential to be a Game of the Year or that could amply hold its own as the very best that the year had to offer.

Even though the annual sequels did their thing and managed to win over the masses with redemptive qualities, such as Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, others middled out with about as much fizz as a stale Pepsi that someone mistakenly left in the movie theater during the theatrical run of R.I.P.D., where they couldn't be bothered to rush out of their seat fast enough and take their beverage with them.

But, despite shortcomings from regular heavy hitters like Call of Duty and Battlefield, some gamers found themselves entrenched in the pits of engagement while playing revamped titles like Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and Devil May Cry; story-driven storybooks-with-guns like BioShock: Infinite and the incomparable kings of sales, Grand Theft Auto V. Others managed to spend the entire year yelling “GOTY!” at the top of their lungs for Naughty Dog's swan-song masterpiece for the PlayStation 3, The Last of Us. Others, of a more refined and niche resolve, found themselves rooting from the sidelines for the rare release of Gran Turismo 6 to take home the gold.

In a less traditional manner, games like Gone Home,Dust and Don't Starve ran fluently and airily through the pipes of dreams held by the self-appointed hipsters of gaming as titles that deserved to be called the “Best Of”.

There were games on the sub-platforms (that many would contend are the “real” platforms) that begged us to take notice, if not through the sheer presence of marketing and sales – such as Candy Crush Saga – at least for the sake of stitching to the lips of all those who experienced such a title a commonly exalted phrase of “Fun” used as praise. I'm talking about the money makers from the proverbial powerhouse of nostalgia, the Big 'N's outings of games like Animal Crossing New Leaf and Pokemon X & Y.

For the dreamers hoping their indies would win something, for the mid-cores who just want to increase their killstreaks, for the hardcore who love a challenge and for the casuals who just want a little bit of digital fun in a life full of concrete absolutes, gaming offered us a little bit of something for everyone in 2013. And here at Gaming Blend, we want to know what was the best game that you felt the year had to offer?